Oh my gosh. What a whirlwind weekend this was! I took a half day on Friday and 12:30 couldn’t come soon enough so I could start my adventure (My new hashtag I have for stuff like this is #adventure2015!). I love, love, love the navigation system I have with my car, I just listened to what she said and before I knew it, my hotel was in sight!
If I ever make reservations for my boss for a hotel, she always wants a high floor, away from the elevator and away from the ice machine, so when I checked in, I asked for the same thing and I ended up getting a corner king suite – nice! I booked my hotel through Expedia and got the room for $107 a night – not too bad! The only thing I didn’t realize was that parking was $25 a day – oh well!
I checked in and had about an hour to kill before meeting up with my first blogger – Jessica! It’s funny but it’s a little bit weird when you meet up with a blogger who doesn’t blog about so much personal stuff, so I really didn’t know what to expect. From the picture on her blog I thought she was about 29 or 30 – but turns out she’s 39 – she looks so young! As she was leaving to meet me, she said her MIL wanted to explain what she was doing again, and she said “just meeting up with a girl I know from the internet!” Not too creepy. I think her husband said something like “hope you don’t get cut up into lots of pieces!” We hit it off right away. We met at The Spice Store – we are both foodies through and through!
I loved that you could only buy an ounce of something to try it out – that’s some of my loot! I guess The Spice House is an off-shoot of Penzey’s – like the family split and The Spice House was created after they separated. All I know is the Penzey’s in Oak Park closed, so I was happy to stock up on some stuff. We walked across the street to The Cheese Shop and oogled all the cheese!
We ended up at AJ Bombers – known for their burgers. There was a 30 minute wait, but we spent the time getting to know each other. This place was cool because they had airplanes with peanuts in them and they would send them across parts of the restaurant and the peanuts would fill up a cup and you could eat them and throw the shells on the ground.
As with most elite athletes, I am pretty sure they drink beer and have a burger before race day, no?!
The conversation was easy, she uses the “f” word just as much as I do, and the evening quickly came and went – thank you so much for meeting up with me Jessica! Next time I’ll come up to your neck of the woods!
The burger though, needs it’s own bigger picture. I paid $2 extra for grass fed beef and it was cooked medium rare, just the way I like it – it was messy, but delicious! I’ve never had sliced fried pickles like that before either – super delish, and I got sweet potato chips on the side.
I thought I would be too nervous to fall asleep, but at 10:30, I turned all the lights off, turned on my white noise machine – you can see a video of it here, which I think is funny because the video says that it helps put babies to sleep, but I need white noise when I sleep – if it’s a quiet room I just cannot fall asleep. It worked like a charm. I didn’t even move until my alarm went off at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday.
I am going to pace out my race weekend and will continue tomorrow with race day! If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that I finished!
I loved having Monday to regroup before heading back to work. I was surprisingly not as sore on Sunday as I thought I would have been – just the back of my calves were super sore and I spent a good 30 minutes in the hotel room Sunday morning stretching them out.
I will tell you though, shit got real though when I walked into Miller Park!
The kids and I got our cleaning pants on yesterday morning and got the house all nice and clean. With three people it was done in about an hour – nice! And after that we just lounges around, I went grocery shopping, and I last minute decided to do ribs for dinner last night with my copycat Rudy’s BBQ Sauce. When I got my cheese loot from Cabot last week, it included some seasonings from Denny Mike’s. I had never heard of that company before, but I used the Sublime Swine for the dry rub while the ribs cooked in the oven for 3 hours at 300 degrees. It was so good!
We basically are going to be eating out of our fridge/freezer/pantry this week, so it should be interesting eats wise!
So stay tuned for the race day recap tomorrow – hope you had a great long weekend! And thanks for all the cheers on Instagram and Facebook – I appreciated it so much! Make it a great day!
You are awesome Biz!! Congratulations on your Spartan finish! I can’t even imagine doing one. Cool photo of Miller Park. Sounds like a fun afternoon with Jessica. I’ve only met one blogger in real life and her husband was a bit worried too. The funny thing is that I have lots of photos of myself and my family on my blog and she doesn’t have any. So I had no clue what she even looked like. We had lots in common though, particularly running. I think I tend to read blogs of people I would probably be friends with in real life.
Looks like an amazing time in the city and CONGRATS on the race! Seriously, that is awesome.
Thanks Courtney! 😀
Woohoo you did it! So proud of you!
I know, when I tell someone about one of my friends in the US, some look strangely at me. How can you have friends through the internet? Well it can as you know. I know, for example, more about you and you about me than my best friend in real life. I read your blog almost everyday where I see her every 2 months or so. You only talk about the highlights then. I am proud to say you are my friend even though we have never met yet.
I am very happy we “met” Fran! Although I try to read your posts in your “accent” even though I don’t even know what that would sound like!
We will meet one day!
Whoo hoo!!! Congrats on being a Spartan! So fun!! It looks like you had so much fun, what a great trip! 🙂
Thanks Amee – some of my friends are now telling me I should do Crossfit – not sure if I am ready for that though!
congrats on your race and a successful blogger meetup! Go Biz!
Thanks Erin – hopefully someday we’ll meet up!
I love Penzeys – but there isn’t one out here.
I use a white noise machine. I have it on every night because the littlest sounds wake me up. John said it is like the princess and the pea. We take it with when traveling , too 😀
Once I am asleep, there could be tornados going on outside and I would never wake up – but the machine helps me fall asleep quickly. 😀
Looks like you had a great weekend and fun filled! Gosh that burger looks good!! Congrats on being a Spartan! Are you in training to be a Gladiator…..wow!! Those ribs look good, must try your copy cat BBQ sauce. Bought some beef ribs today….and of course must make my cucumber/strawberry salad 🙂
Have a great week!!!!
It was a lot of fun Louise – Hannah and I will have to make a road trip to Appleton this summer!
Shit, that burger still looks so good! I told Jeff that we NEED to go to the AJ Bombers here in Madison so I can have their fried pickles. Today is the last day of Whole30 and I’m looking forward to eating all the things I couldn’t have before. I froze the granola you gave me so I could have it later, I reintegrate gluten-free grains back in my diet on Saturday, I’ll try it then! And a huge thank you again for the thoughtful gifts you gave me!
You inspired me to look up races similar to the spartan race but there weren’t any listed on the website I was on, only crazy mud runs with the electrical wires. That’s a no-go for me, I sure the hell ain’t gettin’ zapped on purpose! I’ll just have to keep my eyes open for other things like that.
I’m so glad we met up! We’re going down to Chicago in a few weeks to visit friends, I wonder what Jeff would think of a detour to meet up with you again. :). I’m also thinking about a fall trip to Devon Ave (Desi corridor, “little India”) with the ladies to visit the Indian shops there, if we do a guided tour we might need you and Hannah to help make up our minimum number of people. 🙂
What a great idea to freeze the granola! I am always ready for a meet up whenever you are. I’ve always wanted to go to Devon street – I love Indian food but living in the “sticks” we don’t have any near us.
So glad your Whole30 is over, but glad you were able to improvise with our dinner!
Congrats again!! I love the Spice House so much more than Penzey’s. I love just trying all the different blends in small amounts. The last time we were there, we ate at this sausage restaurant/bar right next door to the Spice House. It was Octoberfest and it was so crowded. I believe there is a Spice House in Evanston. How far is that from you?
Evanston is probably a good hour drive from my house – I too love the tiny bits of different seasonings to try out, but I did just see that Mariano’s is going to have a spice section added to their stores soon!
You must have eaten at Mader’s!
Way to go with the Spartan race! You are truly an inspiration! I want that delectable looking burger!
Thanks Kimberly – I appreciate it!
Congrats on finishing! Looks like you had a great weekend.
I now want a burger with fried pickle slices. That looks incredible!
Thanks Rachel – even though it was tough, I’d do it again!
I love that you meet up with bloggers because you are always introducing me to new ones to follow. Also, love that part of Milwaukee including the Spice House!
One day I’ll make it to your neck of the woods Carrie!
It IS weird to tell non-bloggers that you’re going to meet up with someone you’ve only known online, but all of my experiences with this have been positive – glad you had such a great meet up!
We had that same issue with the Hilton in Houston (for the race we did in January) – parking was $20/day!!! Dang.
Looking forward to the race recap.
Way to go Biz! It sounds like the race was a great experience. The meet-up with Jessica looked like a good time too. I mean, cheese shop, come on!
Thanks Shelley! And yes, non-bloggers don’t get the whole “meet a stranger on the internet thing!” And Tammy, can you believe I forgot to go back to the Cheese Shop to bring home cheese??!!
CAN”T wait to read more about the race! Blogger meet ups always do feel a bit shady, but quickly you feel like real life old friends! That burger!
When we eventually meet Erica it will be like meeting an old friend! 😀